2022 World Cup Team Profile: Switzerland

Swiss National Team (Instagram @swiss_nati_men)

JAKARTA - The Swiss national football team, which is governed by the Swiss Football Federation, has represented the country for about 127 years. Since its inception, the team has worked hard to take its current position among the most prominent national football teams. Dig in and find out more about the players, captains, coaches, FIFA world rankings, 2022 World Cup appearances, titles and major trophies for the Swiss national team.

Profile overview

Full name: Switzerland national football team Nicknames: A-Team, Nati, Rossocrociati Managed by: Swiss Football Association Founded: 1895 Colors: White and red Federation: UEFA Coach: Murat Yakin Captain: Granit Xhaka Most caps: Heinz Hermann (118 ) Top scorer: Alexander Frei (42) FIFA Ranking: 16 (as of June 2022) Highest FIFA Ranking: 3 (1993) Lowest FIFA Ranking: 83 (1998) FIFA Code: SUI Stadium: Wankdorf Stadium A brief History

The Swiss governing body for football was founded in 1895. Nine years later, seven countries, including Switzerland, founded FIFA.

Switzerland qualified for the 1934–66 World Cup, but missed the next six tournaments. Historically, the Swiss team has received a lot of criticism for its mediocre performances. However, since 2006, their squad's performance has improved significantly with consistent qualification for the World Cup.

Switzerland is home to the European Union of Football Associations, UEFA. However, this team has only participated in five editions of the European Cup, namely in 1996, 2004, 2008, 2016 and 2020.

How far has the Swiss national team reached the World Cup? The team's best performances at the World Cup were in 1934, 1938 and 1954, when they made it to the quarter-finals.

Switzerland at the 2022 World Cup

Switzerland qualified for the 2022 World Cup after beating Bulgaria 4-0 in the qualifiers. Responding to the news, Man of the Match player, Xherdan Shaqiri said, "Only the best teams in the world can play in the World Cup. Every game will be difficult for us, but we know we have experience. We played a lot of World Cups. With that experience now, we go with confidence to try to qualify first in this group," quoted from Marca.

Despite widespread skepticism about this team's ability to shine in the match, FIFA predictions following a 4-0 World Cup qualifier win, Switzerland clearly showed that Nati's squad are ready to put in one of their best performances.

Here is the schedule for their group matches at the 2022 World Cup:

Thursday, 24 November 2022 Switzerland vs Cameroon: 17:00 WIB Friday, 25 November 2022 Brazil vs Serbia: 02:00 WIB Monday, 28 November 2022 Cameroon vs Serbia: 17:00 WIB Brazil vs Switzerland: 23:00 WIB Saturday, 3 December 2022 Cameroon vs Brazil : 02:00 WIBSerbia vs Switzerland: 02:00 WIB Provisional squad for the 2022 World Cup

Do you want to know who is in the Swiss national team? Let's take a look at the provisional squad for the Swiss national team for Qatar.

Goalkeeper

Gregor Kobel Jonas Omlin David von Ballmoos

defender

Manuel Akanji Nico Elvedi Ricardo Rodríguez Eray Comert Kevin Mbabu Jordan Lotomba Silvan Widmer

Midfielder

Granit Xhaka Fabian Frei Remo Freuler Djibril Sow Michel Aebischer

Wing

Rubén Vargas Steven Zuber Renato Steffen Xherdan Shaqiri

Striker

Breel Embolo Noah Okafor Andi Zeqiri Team captain

In 2020, Granit Xhaka received the captain's armband following the retirement of Arsenal winger Stephan Lichtsteiner. Xhaka, considered one of the best performing players, also captained Arsenal.

Full name: Granit Xhaka Date of birth: 27 September 1992 Age: 29 years (as of July 2022) Place of birth: Basel, Switzerland Position: Defending midfield Number: 34 Current team: Arsenal Caps: 104 Trainer

Murat Yakin, a former Swiss international, was appointed head coach in 2021. He has also coached FC Frauenfeld, the Grasshoppers, FC Thun, FC Lucerne, FC Basel, Spartak Moscow, FC Schaffhausen and FC Sion.

Full name: Murat Yakin Date of birth: 15 September 1974 Age: 47 years (as of July 2022) Place of birth: Basel, Switzerland Appointed: 9 August 2021 Contract until: 14 July 2024 Preferred formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Win percentage: 47 ,8 percent Top players

As one of the oldest national football teams, the Swiss first team has a number of great players. The following is a summary of the profiles of Alexander Frei, Switzerland's all-time leading goalscorer, and Heinz Hermann, the player with the most caps in the team's history.

Alexander Frei brief profile

Full name: Alexander Frei Date of birth: 15 July 1979 Place of birth: Basel, Switzerland Position: Center forward Caps: 84 Goals: 42 Titles and Cups: European Cup participant (2), World Cup participant (2), Best Footballer (3 ) Heinz Hermann's brief profile Full name: Heinz Hermann Date of birth: 28 March 1958 Place of birth: Zurich, Switzerland Position: Midfielder Caps: 118 Goals: 15 Titles and trophies: Best Player (5) FIFA Rankings

Where does Switzerland rank in football? The latest FIFA rankings as of June 2022 put Nati in 16th position with 1621.43 points.

Performance

The following is a list of some of the trophies and awards of the Swiss national football team:

Silver medal Paris Summer Olympics 1924 Champion European Under-17 Cup 2002 FIFA Under-17 Champion 2009 Runner-up European Under-21 Cup 2011

Although the senior Swiss national team has not lived up to the expectations of its fans, the Qatar 2022 World Cup offers this squad an excellent opportunity to prove the criticism wrong.